Over the past week, my FB page has been dominated by the following: 1) Right-wing Israeli (and well meaning American) friends posting heart-wrenching videos of Israeli children singing while they run to bomb shelters, articles showing how we are incredibly moral because we do not conduct a siege but continue to allow food and fuel to go into Gaza through the one legal entry point (although recently Egypt opened the Rafiach crossing so there are two now), articles showing what monsters Hamas are for putting civilians in harms way, and general posts about how we are a peace-loving people who were forced into this war despite ourselves. 2) Arab friends (one in particular) posting heart-wrenching videos of Palestinian children running for shelter, articles showing what monsters the Israelis are for attacking civilians, and general posts about the megalomaniac colonial aspirations of the Zionist entity. 3) My true friends (Israeli Jewish, American, and Arab), posting about how we all know how this will end, we have to stop with these ever-escalating rounds of violence and come to an agreement. The frustrating thing is that everyone knows what the agreement will look like in the end, huge majorities of both populations want it - but our leaders are much more comfortable with the status quo, and on both sides they know very well how to exploit the fear and mistrust that each new barrage brings into racism and intransigence. The other frustrating thing is how blind each side is to whats going on with the other. Yes - because of our Iron Dome defense system, air raid sirens, and policy of building bomb shelters and reinforced rooms in or near every home, no Israelis have been killed and few have been injured in this round. But those Israeli children running to the shelter really are scared! They are not killed because of the shelter - but they still have to deal with the fact that 5 km away, someone is trying to kill them (and my family at Ziqim has been living this way for about 14 years now). Yes - the Gazans chose Hamas as their leaders - but we control everything that goes in and out of Gaza, and have done everything we can to keep them poor, underdeveloped and helpless. We have to end this charade of enlightened or moral occupation. There is no such thing. We have to end this unhealthy symbiosis by which the Palestinians can blame all their problems on the Israelis, because after all, we control their water, their electricity, even their sewage! (If you really want to understand the meaning of occupation, talk to a Palestinian waste water engineer.) I want a clear border. I want a neighbor that must take responsibility for its own infrastructure, economy, government. If it attacks me, I want the right and ability to respond according to internationally agreed practices. I want my sons, when they go into the army, to protect internationally recognized borders, not police a civilian population. I am tired of all this.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 05:32:20 +0000
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